Consumed Prologue
by NorikoAbarai
Summary: Jushiro Ukitake needs a break and who better to drag him to the world of the living than his best friend and fellow captain Shunsui?


**Consumed**

_I do not own Bleach or any of it's characters. They (even my sweet Ukitake) are all owned and were created by Tite Kubo._

_Prologue_

_This place. I know I've been here before. _

Cherry blossoms floated mystically in the air around him as he lay peacefully under one the zakura boughs, gazing through the haze of falling flowers across the vast row of trees. His white hair flowing gently about his neck, he felt the soft breeze tickle his eyelashes and he smiled at the sensation.

Jushiro Ukitake, despite the calm of his surroundings was a little anxious and confused as to why he was here instead of in his captain's quarters. His feelings were a strange mix of serenity , confusion and the tingling of the place in his mind that kept insisting to give him this sense of nostalgia, though he couldn't place why. He was far too comfortable to really let any of those passing doubts bother him, however.

Indeed, if he'd had much more time to think there in the shade of the sakura branches, he would have bothered to ask himself why his chest no longer threatened to make him wince in pain each time he took anything more than a shallow breath. But before he could notice his lack of discomfort, an image appeared to him that made his heart race as he rose slightly to watch the beauty displayed only a dozen yards from his vantage point.

Beneath the largest sakura bough facing the setting sun, a fair skinned woman in pale pink danced wistfully with each falling petal, touching them with her fingertips as she swayed her arms gracefully, as if swimming through the sky of whites and pinks. Her face was obscured by a glowing light, the same which seemed to surround her elegant form.

He stood slowly and approached her to gap the distance. As he drew a bit nearer, he could hear that she was singing, and he knew why he felt as if he'd been here before. It was her. The one he had heard so many times before. He halted and clasped his hand to his mouth. It was finally her. She took no notice of his movements and continued her exquisite waltz, singing those words he had so imprinted in his memory with that voice ringing out the sweet notes

_Cherry blossoms now in full bloom scattered fleetingly I know it's fate, farewell my friend. when it's time to leave on your journey,with that unchanging feeling. now.. _

_I wonder if now we can say those words without pretense.Words from the heart,Words to hope for your bright future. It's as if the bussling city is rushing us. _

_cherry blossoms just floating to the ground believing one day they'll be reborn Don't cry my friend, It's a shame but it's time to gowith that unadorned smile... _

_ahh_

_cherry blossoms now flying in the air eternally rustling awash in light farewell my friend let's meet again here. on the street scattered with cherry blossoms._

Drawn from his spell by the last notes of her song, he approached her with an urgency he could feel in his aching heart. She danced on, swaying to the little breezes as they passed her. Jushiro wanted to call out to her, to touch her, to hold her in his arms and never let her go. As he increased his speed toward her it seemed she only grew more distant.

At first he ignored the pain in his chest, thinking it his heart pounding in anxiety. But as the woman seemed to start to disappear entirely, he opened his mouth to call out to her, but instead cupped a hand to it , falling to his knees as he coughed a bloody cough. The pains in his chest that he had forgotten flooded over him as the fading image of the woman he had dreamed of so many times before became obscured by the sight of fluid crimson.

Captain Jushiro Ukitake's grey eyes shot wide open as a sharp pain shot in his chest and his violent cough bounced off the walls of his humble room.

"Damn," he cursed himself in the dark, tasting blood on his lips. He had been breathing rapidly, deeply in his sleep. He could tell as his heart was fluttering as he awoke, and his accelerated intake of air had triggered this particular attack.

I need to concentrate, he told himself, on calming my breath.

He coughed more violently than before and reached for the glass of water at the side of his tatami. The cool water immediately relieved his throat and shortly thereafter the coughing stopped with only that sharp subsisting pain he knew so well.

Jushiro sighed in recognition and lat back in the dark of his room, hoping to return to whatever it was he'd dreamt. However, the sleep he met was an exhausted man's dreamless sleep.

Shinsui Kyouraku strode casually toward the home of his best friend and fellow Squad Captain of the Gotei 13. He always enjoyed the walk to Ukitake's home, it was so peaceful and offered some of the most inviting circumstances for quiet introspection. Being a self-proclaimed (and hardly debated) champion of personal relaxation, it came as no burden to this captain to have to travel so far out of the main sect of Soul society to visit his oldest and dearest friend.

When he reached the docile residence that sat so serenely in the warmth of the late winter sun, he ascended the step and stuck his head in the doorway.

"Shiro, buddy?", he called, " You home?"

He was promptly greeted by a large callous hand clamped over his mouth. He raised his eyebrows questioningly at the perpetrator, Sentaro Kotsubaki, a subordinate of Shiro's.

"I apologize for my insolence, Captain Kyouraku" Sentaro whispered, hand still clamped over Squad 8 Captain's mouth.

" Captain Ukitake seems to have had an attack in the night." he removed his hand. "He is still resting, sir" He finished with a wary look at the captain, realizing just how rude he had been.

Shinsui merely looked beyond the 3rd seat officer of the 13th toward his friend's quarters. " I see. Is there any way I can hang around 'til he wakes?"

Kyouraku could tell Sentaro's answer was a definite no before he opened his mouth, but he was interrupted.

"No need, Shinsui." A tired but still engaging voice spoke from the hall. Captain Ukitake stepped into the light of the washitsu and Kyouraku mentally winced at the poor state of health his friend looked to be in, but outwardly smiled and approached him with a firm handshake.

" I thought I heard you come in, my friend." Jushiro spoke genially, speaking, Kyouraku knew, through the smile that masked his pain and embarrassment at his friend seeing him this way.

"Can we speak alone, Shiro?" Kyouraku asked and Ukitake gently suggested Sentaro go check on the Squad barracks, which he did immediately after giving Kyouraku a highly disapproving look.

Sitting across from each other, taking in the ginger tea Ukitake had made, Shinsui finally broke the silence.

"How have you been, Shiro?"

"Well enough I suppose…" _as well as a sickly wretch of a captain can be_, he mentally added, with a sip of his tea. " How goes it in the Seireitei? How is Little Shiro?"

Kyouraku chuckled. " You mean Captain Hitsugaya? Still annoyed as hell whenever I use your nickname on him."

"He's a proud one. Which makes it even more entertaining to piss him off."

Jushiro's light chuckle promptly into a harsh cough. Covering his mouth with his hand as the pain erupted in his chest , he yet again tasted blood. He recovered more quickly than usual with an urgent drink of the warm tea and Shinsui sat patiently waiting for him to speak again, but Jushiro sat quietly, trying to remember what it was that had caused his attack in the night.

A flash of pink flowers sent the memories rushing back to him. The dream he'd had. Cherry blossoms. Like the one he'd had so many times before.

Shinsui spoke suddenly, breaking Ukitake's line of thought.

"How bad was your attack last night?"

Jushiro sighed. " So Sentaro told you? I tried to keep it from him, but he and Kiyone simply won't let their captain be."

"I would have figured it out on my own, anyway, Shiro. You to be in quite a pallour. You surely didn't think your good friend Shinsui would not notice?"

"True enough" Shiro acknowledged. " It was no worse than usual." he lied.

Silence again. Kyouraku considered his weary friend, and broke the quiet.

"I have just come from Old Man Yamamoto."

Ukitake winced at his friend's incredibly formal reference to the strongest and 1st Squad of the Gotei 13 as Shinsui proceeded with his narrative.

"At my request he has agreed to give me a month of leave in order to visit the world of the living." He paused to take a sip of his tea and looked to his friend to see if he was listening.

Shiro cocked an eyebrow inquisitively.

"There is, however a minor stipulation…"

"I suppose there would have to be for you to be allowed leave for so long."

"Right as usual, Shiro." Shinsui chuckled. "Yama-Jin wants me to take you along with me." He smiled warmly at his friend's unresponsive stare, waiting for a response.

"I am not going." Jushiro said simply, sipping his tea noisily to punctuate his statement.

"Ahhh, I thought you might say that. But you don't have anything to worry about ." he spoke convincingly to his friends unchanging expression of being finished with the topic. " Your Squad will be captained by Renji Abarai of Squad Six. He is being made a temporary captain while you are away. As for me, the lovely Rangiku Matsumoto will be Squad Eight's Captain til I get back."

"Something that Nanao is not too pleased with. Mind you," he chuckled, "I would have taken Nanao along with us too, but Yama-Jin wouldn't hear of it."

Ukitake considered his friends words. Gods. Is everyone plotting with him to get me to go to the living world? By all appearances this was an enormously thoughtful gesture on the part of his friend, and he had to admit that a respite from his stale surroundings would be a blessing.

He was sure that Vice-Captain Abarai, is spite of his abrupt attitude would make a fine captain in his absence, as well as Rangiku would lead the 8th for Shinsui, possibly better. Still, the whole (admittedly kind) effort of General-Captain Yamamoto made him feel even more useless as a captain.

"What do you say, Shiro, buddy?" Shinsui broke his line of thought.

"You wouldn't refuse me this would you, old friend? It's been so long since I've seen the other world, and I won't go unless you come along."

Jushiro fought the urge to roll his eyes. He really thought that the best idea was to refuse his laid back friend this pleasure, however he reasoned, he is trying to do something for me. He is obviously more in tune to how badly I've been feeling lately, that is probably why he hatched this plan in the first place.

_For friendship he thought. _"Very well, I'll go with you, Shinsui." he said smiling warmly at his oldest friend.

Shinsui seemed surprised it had taken so little time to convince the squad 13 captain, but smiled back, and stood to leave.

"Excellent. I'll go finalize the changes with Yama-Jin." he left the room and called back to Shiro from the doorway. " We leave first thing tomorrow."

Shinsui practically skipped his way back to the Seireitei, daydreaming about the ryoka food, women and alcohol he'd enjoyed not nearly enough before.

"I'm going to indulge myself in every way possible" he spoke to himself as he got further and further away from the home of the Squad 13 captain.

Sitting in a bit of a lingering stupor, alone at his tea table., Jushiro rather wondered to himself how quickly his leave had been decided, and how little he'd known about it. He'd forgotten to ask where they were even going.

The only times he'd ever been to the world of the living were the official hollow slaying trips he'd made so many times in his youth, along with a couple of reconnaissance missions.

He wondered what was in store for him in the weeks ahead, and exactly what plans his dear friend had in store for him.

Perhaps a constitutional was just what he needed to pick up the rut his health seemed to be in. In a gigai in the living world, perhaps his symptoms would be more minor, or at least not bother him as much.

_This should be interesting, at the very least. _He told himself as he settled in for much needed rest before his journey from the Soul Society to the world of the living.

He drifted off to sleep with a faint thought passing through his mind.

_I wonder if the sakura trees are in bloom in the living world._

* * *

Prologue to Consumed is finished!

BTW, here is some terminology from the story so far,

Sakura- cherry blossom

Zakura- plural of cherry blossoms

Tamami- platform bed

Washitsu- traditional living room

Yama-Jin- Shinsui Kyouraku's informal nickname for Captain-General Yamamoto

The Cherry Blossom song is a traditional Japanese song that I encourage anyone to listen to on Youtoob to get the full depth!


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